SumSpecDerby ParadoxCat BColgrove 15KBP

Amateurs Take Over Fort Worth

Colgrove was pleased with how well Vespaa (CD Olena x My Scooters Smokin x Smart Lil Scoot) has done with her. The pair recently earned the Classic Limited Non-Pro Reserve Championship at the NCHA Super Stakes, held in April. The 13-year-old said she was confident in her gelding when they entered the pen.

“I’m pretty comfortable every time I show him. I don’t really get that nervous when I show him because I show him so much,” Colgrove said.

Vespaa, who was bred by Bar H Ranche, and Colgrove received $9,258 for the championship. Smith and One Red Mist took home the Reserve Championship, which came with a paycheck worth $8,845.

Classic/Challenge Rios of Mercedes Amateur

After turning on their A-game in the finals, John Brengard and SDP Hydriven Hicapoo rose to the top of 32 competitive horse-and-rider duos by scoring a 219 to take the Classic/Challenge Rios of Mercedes Amateur Championship.

Brengard, of Paragould, Arkansas, picked up a check for $6,231 for the winning run. The 15-year-old rider qualified two horses for the finals after marking a 215.5 in the first go-round aboard SDP Hydriven Hicapoo (Hydrive Cat x Hicapoo x Doc’s Hickory) and Smooth As A Huntress (Smooth As A Cat x Dual Huntress x Dual Pep). Both mares are owned by Brengard’s parents, Chris and Tracy Brengard.

“They are both really nice horses, but I wish I could have done better with my second mare,” Brengard said of Smooth As A Huntress, who finished with a tie for 15th place, but won the Classic/Challenge Unlimited Amateur Championship last year at the NCHA Summer Spectacular. “But I’m still really honored to be on two really great horses and compete against great people.”
SDP Hydriven Hicapoo was bred by Buffalo Ranch, of Fort Worth, Texas, and Smooth As A Huntress was bred by Jerry Yelverton, of Russellville, Arkansas.

The Co-Reserve Championship went to Amanda Purdin Standish of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Countin On Stella (Im Countin Checks x Smooth Stella x Smooth As A Cat), as well as Grace Ann Vangilder, of Jackson, Missouri, and Shes A Smokin Dually (Third Cutting x Smokin Dually x Dual Pep). Both riders marked a 215 to each take home a paycheck worth $5,850.

Standish and her husband, Rhein Standish, own Countin On Stella, who was bred by Tommy Manion, of Aubrey, Texas, and who won the Idaho Cutting Horse Association Futurity & Aged Event Derby Open with Morgan Cromer last year. Vangilder’s mare was bred by Bar H Ranche, of Moscow, Tennessee. Shes A Smokin Dually was the Reserve Champion in the 2014 NCHA Super Stakes John Deere Open with Josh Drake aboard.

For complete coverage of the NCHA Summer Spectacular, subscribe to Quarter Horse News.